From a Female Point of View: SUKKOT IN MEA SHEARIM

B"H

I had already described some of the Sukkot events in Mea Shearim during the holiday. However, there are further additional details I would like to point out. Chassidim themselves as well as the Israeli online magazine YNET have already reported some peculiar incidents and therefore, I would like to describe some events rather from a female point of view. The gender here is very important, as Mea Shearim is well – known for its restrictions concerning women.

I am already used to it but outsiders may regard it as totally fundamentalist or even absurd. Every Sukkot, the main road in Mea Shearim, the Mea Shearim Street, is divided between male and female. This only takes places on Chol HaMoed Sukkot (the intermediate days of Sukkot), and particularly in the evenings. The main road, the area around the chassidic group of Toldot Aharon and their Synagogue are divided; as well as the area around the Satmarer Synagoge on Rebbe Zalman Leib Teitelbaum in Yoel Street (opposite Karlin – Stolin).

For women, the Toldot Aharon Synagoge was divided into a female entrance and exit. The women entered in the back of the building and left in the front. Already in front of the stairs outside the Ezrat Nashim (women's section) was a huge line – up. Countless visitors were anxiously waiting to get in: Toldot Aharon (TA) women, Litvishe, national religious as well as chassidic women from other groups. People were just storming the TA building. From the inside, we heard chassidic music played by their own band. Whoever listened to the music outside couldn't resists of sneaking inside and having a look of what is going on.
Once I got inside, I had to make my way through the long corridor into the Synagogue. Two young Israeli girls were employed as private modesty guards. Not from Mea Shearim but total outsiders wearing yellow vests. Basically the security girls were there to watch that each of us wore modest clothes. The same happened outside. An Arab suicide bomber could have come with a bomb but the security staff just if the clothes were modest enough.

After entering the Ezrat Nashim, I only saw women's legs standing on the metal benches. There was no space left but the women kept on climbing up in order to look downstairs into the men's section. There, the Chassidim and their visitors were dancing wildly. The whole scene looked like a rock concert and the last time I had seen such masses climbing on top of the benches was when one of the two the Satmarer Rebbes, Rabbi Aharon Teitelbaum, was visiting Jerusalem in August 2007. There are times when I simply think that all the metal benches are about to collapse. However, some women were quite successful in climbing up and were really able to see.

Was a woman turning into Mea Shearim Street on the right (outside the TA Synagogue), she was supposed to walk on in the left side. The men walked in the middle of the road and the women were sharing a narrow sidewalk. The sidewalk was terribly packed and the worst was when there were women coming with their baby carriages. According to YNET, 15,000 visitors found their way to Mea Shearim on each night of the Sukkot holiday.
The area across Toldot Aharon, right in front of the Breslover Synagogue, was one of the busiest, as people were walking through the main road or crossing into the local market to the Toldot Avraham Yitzchak. The whole main road divided the genders by a white plastic curtain, so that no men could see the women. The question was what happened when you had to change directions I order to get inside the Mea Shearim market ?

It was definitely a men's idea setting up this wooden bridge in front of Breslov. The men were walking over the bridge and the women passed underneath. In the end, the bridge proved itself as completely useless because at the crossing, everyone saw and passed each other. Despite all the metal fences and plastic curtains, the genders met and saw each other. The whole Mechitzah (division) caused just chaos and I didn't really get the reason for the bridge. Last year, everything worked fine without it.

And with the bridge, speculations and facts were just starting.
I heard that the Toldot Aharon as well as the Mishkenot HaRoim had organized the division. The proof is that many Toldot Aharon Chassidim were watching the private security guards who were actually watching the modesty. The TA Chassidim even ruled the ongoing traffic (buses and cars). There was a certain rumour that the whole modesty chaos was only caused in order to block the entrance to the Mea Shearim market or in other words, the purpose was to make it as hard as possible to get into the market. Why ? Because the TA split – off, the Toldot Avraham Yitzchak, are located in the market. Their Rebbe Shmuel Yaakov Kahn is the older brother of the TA Rebbe David Kahn. The relationship between the two brothers is unknown or at least, hard to describe. On the one hand, they appear to be friends; at least publically. On the other hand, there are obvious disputes what we could see during Sukkot.

A Chassid told me that the present fight on Sukkot was caused by Cholent (stew with meat, beans and potatoes). The TA Rebbe had decided that visitors of his group should receive regular food in the Sukkah and no Cholent. The Avraham Yitzchak Rebbe, however, decided that visitors and Chassidim would receive the regular Cholent. It is unbelievable that a pot full of Cholent could cause such trouble between two chassidic groups.
Additionally, there was a further argument between the Toldot Aharon and the Neturei Karta. I still haven't found out the reason, and so far only that the dispute between the TA and the Neturei Karta has a longer history. Furthermore, the Toldot Aharon were accused of beating up Yeshiva students.

The secular press and other outsiders always consider such incidents as a sensation and jump on it. The Chassidim, however, don't seem to care about the public opinion but just about the orders of their Rebbe. "My Rebbe is right and yours is wrong". Nevertheless, the question is, how far the Rebbes really influence what is happening. Are they giving the orders or is it just their Chassidim acting in a certain way ? Who turns out to be against whom ?

I am always more interested in how the women feel. As a woman, you walk behind a metal fences covered by a white plastic curtain. Such pictures we only know from Iran or Afghanistan and not from the modern State of Israel. At the beginning the whole Mechitzah and all those male ideas went on my nerves. Who can think of such restrictions at all ?
In the end, I got used to the Mechitzot (divisions). One of the reasons may be that I don't live in a haredi area and thus, Iam not facing all this throughout the entire Sukkot. Moreover, the division only takes place during Sukkot.
I met women who thought that the division is just absurd and I met those welcoming the Mechitzah. The latter enjoyed walking around without men starring at them. Those people complaining had not other choice but accepting the rules in the end. Either you go with it or don't even come. There is no third way.

My personal dilemma began when I had to cross the men's section. I intended to go into the Synagogue of the Mishkenot HaRoim and had to cross the main road used by men. One of the security guards let me pass quickly and no one complained. I jumped into the Synagogue where a chassidic woman tried to get her baby carriage upstairs. As soon as I jumped in, she smiled at me and nodded. Well, I had made it.

All the divisions of the gender in haredi society – I am already used to all the rules. The Litvishe are less strict but most Chassidim are. As a woman, I am limited in my movements. Going to a chassidic Tish is the best example. Women sit upstairs and usually don't get any Shirayim (food) from the Rebbe. Nothing. Unless you go to Kretchnif in Jerusalem, where the women may get some cake. Women sit behind a glass Mechitzah and hardly hear the words of the Rebbe's Derasha (teaching). The Toldot Aharon Rebbe even made a decree that women have to leave his Tish at least 15 minutes before it officially ends. Otherwise all the genders would gather in the streets and this automatically causes immodesty.

Someone from the outside probably thinks that all those divisions are just totally out of place and have nothing to do with today's world. Whoever deals a lot with Chassidim is not surprised about anything anymore and get used to many things. There is hardly a woman who desires to rebel because no one will change society anyway. In case there are innovations, they are going to come slowly and step by step, and not because someone is starting a rebellion.

For the next visit at a chassidic Tish, I am going to wear my modest clothes and try to show a proper behaviour. One gets used to anything and all this doesn't mean that chassidic women do behave the same way at home. In your home your can do whatever you want and the neighbours don't need to know everything !